Still hanging on

Carl and Sam have been shearing again today and arrived home with a large cone of alpaca wool in a lovely colour.  My knitting has been temporarily on hold due to a number of other things that are happening but I really must get going again.  I also need to sort and send a new lot of fleece as I am now almost completely out of yarn.

Flem's baby is doing very well and was racing around all on her own tonight while Mums and prospective Mums lay around looking exhausted.  Thankfully, no more cria yet and I am never going to moan again when they hang onto their cria.

Not good for Little Suri today.  He is still with us but I have had to bring him home and he is asleep in the kitchen - not good.  Lunchtime I just managed to rescue him from being pecked by a crow and he then went back to the field shelter but he was attracting large buzzy flies.  I shall give him tonight but then, if he survives will have to think about it being the end for him.  Strangely, he is very peacefully asleep at the moment and despite being unable to lift his head unaided is sucking well on his bottle - not for long at a time though.  His Mum does not miss him at all - I think she assumes he is no longer with us.

Little Suri

I am afraid things are not looking too good for Little Suri.  He has barely lifted his head unaided today.  I have lifted him up every so often and tried to get his legs working but he has no strength at all at the back and I fear he is beginning to give up.

After a while you begin to wonder if you are prolonging life or prolonging pain.  He has gained 0.1 of  a kg and is breathing normally now but it has been a struggle and I am not sure everything inside has developed properly with him being so early.  This evening he began to shake despite his coat and being in the field shelter.  His Mum still checks him but she is beginning to go away more.  I don't think I can do any more for him so we will just have to wait and see.

Flem's  little girl is going from strength to strength so there is good news.

Hanging on

I don't feel like my feet have touched the ground properly for the last few days - and not due to my Prancercise.  Premature baby number two (Flem's little girl) is doing well.  She is still wobbly but can kush properly and drink from her Mum.

I think she is going to be fine.

Premature baby number one - Little Suri - is only just hanging on.  He has not got up at all today and when I have tried to make him stand he has gone like a rag doll.  He is mostly still being tube fed although he did have about 50ml from the bottle this morning and a bit more than that last night.  It's a bit of a nuisance as Crispie and Flem hate each other so when I try to put them and their babies in the same filed shelter with pen they create havoc spitting at each other.  The weather was a bit chilly today at times and it rained so I wanted them both in tonight.   We may have to think of some other way of doing it.

No picture of Little Suri yet as he just looks too pathetic and his fleece is a bit patchy in places.

Hopefully, no more premature babies . . . but Lily does look a little odd!

Trauma - AGAIN

I just do not believe it!

Crispie's little one is hanging on.  He has tried twice to get to Crispie's udder and he has been tentatively sucking at the bottle - although most of his feeds have had to be tubed.  I managed to get him going to the toilet which I think he was very pleased about (he grumbles a lot).  Things are not looking rosy but, then again, they are not looking dire.  He sleeps most of the time but I would imagine that is not surprising.

Having sorted him out this morning I left the fields when Sam turned up to do a bit of paddock maintenance.  I gave him strict instructions on feeding little suri and keeping an eye on everything.  Having cleaned the house up, again, I returned only to look over the field gate and see a cria - not the little suri!  Sam hadn't noticed but it had only just happened and the afterbirth was still to come.  NO ONE IS DUE YET- WHAT ARE THEY UP TO?

It turned out to be Flem's - beautiful solid white little girl but premature!  This one was born at 10 months 6 days and is down on it pasterns etc, etc, etc!  Stronger than the other and weighs just over 7kg whilst the suri was just over 5kg.  Flem is such a lovely girl when she gives birth and actually wants help so it was no problem holding it up whilst it latched on - in fact it can be accomplished without needing a second person to hold her (shame she isn't like that about having her feet done!).

I am now wondering if this is just a fluke or if there is some reason they are early.  If this happens again I am going to be seriously worried.  Sorry about the lack of pictures but I am chasing my tail at the moment and I am all hot and bothered - so hot I had to take my trousers off in the field this afternoon and Sam is highly embarrassed about it but I am sure I would have collapsed from the heat and stress if not!

Still with us!

Just a quick update tonight as it is getting late and I must go back to feed the little one again - he is still with us!  I have had to feed him with the stomach tube all day but he is now trying to stand.  He lay out in the sun for most of the day but I put him back in the shelter this afternoon as he seemed to be over heating a bit.  Then, just now, I lifted him up and helped him balance and he tottered over to Crispie and went under her back legs all by himself!  No sucking yet but I am tentatively hopeful.  I had to leave him for a bit this evening as we went to visit, 'A very special Hole' - more on that, with any luck, soon.  Mind you I spent much of the time just before trying to lose a Jack Russel Cross who adopted me and tried to make me throw stones for it.  Despite walking up and down the road at a very brisk pace I could not lose him,  until his owner zoomed up in a rather nice convertible and picked him up.

I have really come upstairs  to get away from Carl and Sam who went silaging last night and cannot stop comparing tractors, gear boxes and the best method of rolling a clamp!

Hopefully there will be photos of the little one tomorrow.

Trauma

Pronkercise video has to go on hold for a bit, Barbara, as a definite traumatic day today.  Luckily I was up and out particularly early today and as I arrived at the field gate I knew something was going on as all the girls from both paddocks were gathered in a mass at the bottom.  As  I walked down the track I could see a white bundle on the ground but, at first, I did not think it could be a cria.  My birthing is not really due to start for a minimum of two weeks - that will be when the first two come up to 11 months.  Odder still, the white bundle was not in their paddock.

As I got nearer I could see it was a just arrived cria but not moving - I ran.  It was a very premature cria and at first I could not tell who the Mum was as they were all milling around and no one at all showed any sign of any blood or anything.  First thing was to spray the navel and see if I could get him up.  He could not stand and his breathing was very bad, almost growling and gurgling, also his gums were completely white.  It is not so easy to swing a cria as it is a lamb but I managed although I had visions of pulling his legs off.  Nothing came out and there was a lot of slime still attached to his nose and in his mouth.  After fiddling for a bit I resorted to artificial respiration, more for something to do than anything else, which is completely disgusting on a slimy cria (Carl said I should have used a tube but where do you suddenly find one of them in the middle of a field?)and nothing improving I rang for advice (during which I saw Crispie pass the afterbirth so I knew it was hers) but still made very little progress.  In the end I phoned the vet who said there was nothing he could do that I wasn't doing and just to let nature take it's course a he was too premature (a couple of days before 10 months).  I have never had one this premature.

 

Mind you he is quite big.  I have just sat him up like this - he soon falls over again.

 

I wasn't going to just leave him but I couldn't get him drinking from Crispie - she liked him but he had no suck reflex what so ever.  Stomach tube time and that is not something I enjoy.  I know I should be used to it by now and I know my breeder readers just take it in their stride but I hate it!  So, all set up I got him on my knee and was about to begin when I felt a very damp leg and lifting my hand I found it covered in blood.  First time I have had it - a umbilical hemorrhage.  I wasn't organised not expecting much to happen yet so had to stick  him under my arm, grasp the cord to stem the flow and run to the caravan to find the umbilical clamps - and pretty hopeless they were (probably my fault  really)  the first dropped off within 5 minutes.  Did it in the end and iodined him up then back to the stomach tube.  I have to say it was the simplest I have ever done as he helped it down by swallowing every now and again.

The breathing was still really bad and I couldn't get anything else out of him so in desperation (and you may not be supposed to do this)  I got a syringe - without needle obviously - stuffed it, carefully, up each nostril in turn and pulled the plunger back.  Remarkably, and it might be a fluke and not because of what I did, he started breathing almost normally and the rasping stopped.  He is still with us and is tucked up in a field shelter with Crispie and Cassie as honorary auntie but he still cannot stand and he may not make it.

 

I fear the blog may not be terrifically grammatical but I am very stressed - and on top of all that  . . . but, no, the rest can wait for another blog!

Mop and bucket at the ready

What a weekend!  We have sheared until we have dropped, cleaned until we have blistered and become so disorganised I have abandoned The List!

Amongst everything else we have managed to shear another nine of ours - they are gradually getting done.  Saturday I was so excited as Sherbet, my suri who has not been pregnant for the last two years, showed she definitely is this year when we sheared her.  She is bagging up and starting to open up at the back end.  This is wonderful as I had doubted whether she was.  Her last cria was Lily who is gorgeous so I am hoping for something rather nice!  Carl was more excited about the holster he has made for himself to put his clipper oil in so he has it on hand whilst shearing - he is also a bit over excited about his blade sharpening and is champing at the bit to go and sharpen some more!


And despite everything I have stuck to my diet and lost half a stone (it doesn't actually show much) and continued with my daily exercises (which Reg and Two Tone, two of the sheep) enjoy joining in with.  Care must be taken when doing this exercise workout downhill as incredible speeds can be reached.  Sorry the blog is short and photoless (I forgot to take any) if you are feeling cheated to can always click on the link for a preview of the workout I am using on the hill.  I have not progressed to using weights.


Prancercise

Now it is nearly midnight and I must wash the kitchen floor.